Zhc  flIMami  Bulletin 


Series  VIII 


FEBRUARY,  1910 


Number  8 


OHIO  STATE  NORMAL  COLLEGE 
PUBLICATIONS 
TEACHERS’  BULLETIN  No.  12 


Principles  Controlling  the  Course 
of  Study  of  the  Oxford 
Public  Schools 


J.  W.  HECKERT 


Published  Monthly  by  Miami  University 

And  entered  at  Postoffice ,  Oxford ,  Ohio,  as  Second  Class  Mail  Matter 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  OHIO  STATE  NORMAL  COL¬ 
LEGE  OF  MIAMI  UNIVERSITY. 


These  publications  form  a  series  of  teachers’  bulletins  issued  by  the 
Ohio  State  Normal  College  of  Miami  University  for  the  benefit  of  the 
teachers  of  the  State,  and  in  the  interest  of  public  education. 

All  requests  from  teachers  desiring  these  bulletins,  or  information 
regarding  educational  movements,  will  receive  prompt  attention.  Address 
Teachers’  Aid  Bureau,  Ohio  State  Normal  College,  Oxford,  Ohio. 

1.  Nature-Study,  by  George  W.  Hoke,  12  pp.,  3  figs.,  October,  1903. 
Outline  for  study  of  trees,  weeds,  insects,  birds,  etc.,  with  list  of 
books  for  preference. 

2.  Geography,  by  George  W.  Hoke,  15  pp.,  1  plate,  May,  1904.  Treats 
of  principles  of  Geography,  and  Regional  Geography,  with  sugges¬ 
tive  exercises  for  class  work. 

Evolution  of  Public  Education  in  Ohio,  (A)  Legislation,  by  Harvey 
C.  Minnich,  20  pp.,  2  maps,  March,  1907.  A  historical  account  of 
school  legislation. 

4.  The  Manual  Arts,  by  F.  C.  Whitcomb,  15  pp.,  April  1907.  Sugges¬ 
tions  as  to  course  of  study  and  equipment,  with  special  reference  to 
needs  of  small  school  systems. 

5.  The  Soil  and  Its  Relation  to  Plants,  by  B.  M.  Davis,  35  pp.,  6  figs., 
May,  1907.  Subject  presented  by  means  of  simple  experiments. 

6.  Evolution  of  Public  Education  in  Ohio,  (B)  Certification,  by  Harvey 
C.  Minnich,  23  pp.,  November,  1907.  Continuation  of  No.  3. 

7.  Experimental  Studies  of  Plant  Growth,  by  B.  M.  Davis,  31  pp.,  17  figs., 
May,  1908.  Forty-two  experiments  suitable  for  small  high  schools. 

8.  Stories  for  the  Elementary  Grades,  by  Anna  E.  Logan,  20  pp.,  Sep¬ 
tember,  1908.  Arranged  with  special  reference  to  the  needs  of 
teachers,  introducing, or  increasing  story-telling  work  in  their  schools. 

9.  Arithmetic  in  the  Grades,  by  T.  L.  Feeney,  19  pp.,  January,  1909. 
General  discussion  followed  by  outline  of  course  of  study. 

10.  English  in  the  Grades,  by  Frances  Gibson  Richard,  26  pp.,  March, 
1909.  Detailed  outline  including  titles  of  selections  for  all  the  grades. 

11.  The  Soil  and  Its  Relation  to  Plants,  by  B.  M.  Davis,  36  pp.,  December, 
1909.  Revised  edition  of  No  5. 


2 


Principl  es  Controlling  the  Course  of  Study 
of  the  Oxford  Public  School. 


In  order  to  make  the  work  of  the  training  department  of 
the  Ohio  State  Normal  College  and  the  teaching  in  the  Pub¬ 
lic  School  of  Oxford  as  effective  as  possible  it  has  been 
deemed  wise  to  frame  a  new  course  of  study  for  the  latter. 
The  aim  is  twofold.  In  the  first  place,  the  welfare  of  the 
school  demands  that  its  teachers  be  given  some  definite  scheme 
outlining  the  work  of  the  several  grades.  In  the  second  place 
we  desire  that  our  teachers  in  training  form  the  habit  of 
using  the  course  of  study.  We  want  them  to  consult  it  for 
guidance  in  their  work  from  week  to  week;  thus  learning  to 
carry  out,  in  the  grade  they  are  teaching,  the  aim  of  the 
school.  We  desire  that  they  become  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  to  function  in  a  system ;  that  their  grade  is 
but  one  of  a  number,  and  that,  in  order  that  they  may  do 
their  work  as  well  as  possible,  they  ought  to  know  what  the 
children  have  done  before  they  came  to  them,  and  what  they 
are  supposed  to  prepare  them  for  in  the  course  of  a  year's 
work.  This  cannot  be  done  without  constant  reference  to 
the  course  of  study.  The  present  article  will  set  forth  mere¬ 
ly  a  few  of  the  fundamental  principles  which  we  believe 
must  control  the  making  of  the  course  of  study  for  the  ele¬ 
mentary  school.  These  principles,  while  sufficiently  well 
known  to  the  educational  public,  should  be  stated  in  this 
connection  in  order  to  explain  the  raison  d'etre  of  certain 
features  of  the  outlines  to  be  published  in  future  numbers  of 
the  Bulletin. 

It  is  quite  generally  agreed  at  the  present  time  that  the 
aim  of  the  educational  procedure,  the  end  to  be  attained, 
must  be  sought  for  in  ethics  and  sociology.  Whether  this 
aim  is  stated  as  social  efficiency  or  as  the  ability  and  will¬ 
ingness  to  realize  the  ideal  purposes,  thus  helping  to  build 


3 


up  a  world  of  eternal  values,  is  immaterial;  the  idea  is  the 
same  in  the  two  cases.  What  we  are  really  trying  to  do  is 
to  bring  the  child  into  possession  of  certain  materials  of 
knowledge  which  will  enable  him  to  understand  his  environ¬ 
ment;  to  train  his  mind  and  his  body  to  make  use  of  this 
knowledge  for  right  purposes;  and  finally  to  make  him  will¬ 
ing,  enthusiastic  if  possible,  to  act  in  accordance  with  his 
knowledge  and  ability,  using  both  for  right  ends.  This 
end  or  aim  demands  that  the  subject  matter  embodied  in  the 
course  of  study  be  of  such  a  character  as  to  enable  the  child 
to  understand  and  react  to  his  environment. 

Mow  social  and  industrial  conditions  of  today  are  very 
different  from  those  of  former  days.  One  need  not  go  back 
so  very  far  in  order  to  see  this.  The  fathers  and  mothers  of 
the  present  generation  of  children  can  give  many  illustra¬ 
tions  of  tasks  little  and  big  which  they  as  children  had  to 
perform  in  and  around  the  house.  These  tasks  which  at  the 
time  often  seemed  mere  drudgery  had  really  an  educative 
value.  The  children  of  that  time  received  an  insight  into 
the  problems  of  the  home  and  skill  in  helping  to  solve  those 
problems  which  the  children  of  the  present  time  do  not  re¬ 
ceive.  Training  of  the  mind  in  so  far  as  these  tasks  led  the 
child  to  see  and  understand  the  social  and  industrial  situa¬ 
tion  of  the  time;  and  training  of  the  hand  in  so  far  as  he  was 
required  to  aid  in  the  care  of  the  home  and  to  perform  other 
duties  assigned  him.  With  the  specialization  in  trades,  or 
rather  the  substitution  of  the  manufactory  for  the  little 
shop;  with  the  movement  of  the  farming  population  to  the 
city;  with  the  introduction  of  machinery  into  many  of  the 
processes  in  the  various  industries  formerly  requiring  skill  of 
hand ;  with  the  substitution  by  the  family  of  the  boarding 
house  for  housekeeping;  there  is  no  longer  that  opportunity 
for  educational  activity  that  formerly  existed.  If  this  is 
true  it  would  seem  that  the  school  of  today  ought  to  do  some¬ 
thing  to  meet  that  situation  and  give  that  training  which 
was  formerly  given  by  the  home.  The  inference  then  would 
be  that  the  schools  must  teach  something  besides  the  three 
R’s;  in  fact  most  educators  are  convinced  that  mere  train¬ 
ing  in  the  three  R’s  would  constitute  about  as  good  a  train- 


4 


in g  for  the  life  of  today  as  would  a  thoro  course  in  the  Chi¬ 
nese  Classics. 

The  course  then  must  embrace  many  topics  which  for¬ 
merly  had  no  legitimate  place  in  it.  It  must  be  enriched,  as 
the  expression  goes.  But  just  as  soon  as  we  plan  to  enrich 
it  two  other  questions  arise,  and  with  reference  to  them 
there  is  considerable  difference  of  opinion.  The  first  is, 
“What  shall  we  add  to  the  present  course?’ ’  The  second, 
“Since  we  are  going  to  add  to  the  course  shall  we  not  have 
to  eliminate  some  of  the  facts  now  taught;  and  if  so,  what 
facts  shall  we  eliminate?”  We  believe,  to  begin  with  the 
last  question,  that  certain  of  the  topics  so  conscientiously 
taught  by  the  teacher  up  to  the  present  time  must  be  elim¬ 
inated.  In  history,  for  example,  many  topics  from  ancient 
history  which  now  burden  the  curricula  of  some  of  our 
school  systems  have  no  legitimate  place  there;  much  from  the 
later  European  history  could  likewise  be  removed  without  the 
pupil’s  suffering  any  serious  inconveniences.  Much  of  the 
material  that  is  found  in  the  texts  on  American  history  could 
be  omitted  without  any  danger  to  the  value  of  the  course. 

To  determine  what  materials  should  be  eliminated  we 
must  appeal  to  our  standard.  The  aim  of  the  curriculum  as 
a  whole  is  social  efficiency.  The  aim  of  a  course  in  Ameri¬ 
can  history  is  to  acquaint  the  child  with  the  ideals  of  the 
American  people;  to  teach  him  how  these  ideals  came  to 
be,  and  how  they  functioned  in  the  solution  of  certain  prob¬ 
lems  that  arose  in  the  life  of  the  nation;  problems  of  gov¬ 
ernment,  religion,  education  and  industries.  Judging  in 
the  light  of  this  standard  we  may  exclude  any  topics  of 
European  history  which  do  not  help  us  to  appreciate  Ameri¬ 
can  institutions,  or  help  us  understand  their  immediate  ori¬ 
gin  in  the  amount  of  time  to  be  devoted  to  the  study  of  his¬ 
tory.  We  may  also  exclude  from  our  study  the  endless  wars 
that  still  occupy  too  much  of  the  space  of  some  of  the  pres¬ 
ent-day  histories.  We  should,  on  the  other  hand,  include 
the  study  of  some  topics  not  now  found  in  many  of  our 
courses.  Topics  from  industrial  history,  from  the  history 
of  education,  from  the  social  life  of  former  times,  would  be 
cases  in  point.  The  child  would  then  be  given  a  more  ac¬ 
curate  picture  of  former  times  and  would  feel  that  the  peo- 


5 


pie  of  colonial  days  did  something  besides  talking  politics 
and  burning  witches. 

In  geography  a  similar  plan  should  be  followed.  The  end¬ 
less  drills  of  former  days  on  the  minutiae  of  physical  geogra¬ 
phy,  the  innumerable  bays,  capes,  mountain  peaks  and  cities 
recorded  on, a  map  may  be  entitled  to  a  place  on  a  map— al- 
tho  they  certainly  need  not  appear  on  the  school  map— but 
a  knowledge  of  them  certainly  does  not  constitute  a  knowl¬ 
edge  of  geography.  Neither  is  that  kind  of  geographical 
knowledge  the  most  important  part  of  the  subject.  It  is  far 
more  important  for  the  child  to  know  how  man  makes  a  liv¬ 
ing  in  certain  of  the  better  known  regions  of  the  world;  for 
him  to  understand  that  certain  physical  conditions  favor 
certain  occupations,  and  that  man  in  any  region,  if  he  is 
sufficiently  civilized,  does  that  thing  which  brings  him  the 
best  income,  than  for  him  to  know  and  to  be  able  to  repeat  at 
will  the  entire  list  of  capes  and  bays  of  the  world. 

In  language  the  emphasis  in  the  past,  and  in  many 
schools  in  the  present,  has  been  too  strongly  placed  on  the 
formal  side  of  the  subject.  The  tendency  very  wisely  is 
away  from  the  science  of  grammar  to  reading,  speaking 
and  writing  the  language.  Much  time  will  therefore  be 
saved  which  was  formerly  wasted  in  the  futile  attempt  to 
teach  children  of  the  lower  grades  formal  grammar.  In 
arithmetic  we  have  begun  to  omit  such  topics  as  true  dis¬ 
count,  partial  payments,  partnership  and  cube  root.  We 
should  incorporate  more  work  in  problems  of  a  practical  na¬ 
ture  taken  from  the  occupations  of  the  children  during  their 
school  hours  and  in  some  cases  from  outside.  Manual  train¬ 
ing,  domestic  science,  school  gardening  offer  a  splendid  op¬ 
portunity  for  problems  of  this  kind.  Even  history  and  geog¬ 
raphy  can  be  treated  from  the  quantitative  point  of  view 
much  more  extensively  than  is  ordinarily  done. 

W  ith  some  of  the  obsolete  materials  weeded  out  we  shall 
have  room  for  those  topics  which  conditions  of  today  and 
our  better  understanding  of  child  nature  demand.  In  the 
light  of  this  standard  we  believe  that  manual  training,  ele¬ 
mentary  agriculture  and  domestic  science  should  have  a 
place  in  the  elementary  school  curriculum ;  that  some  form  of 
these  should  be  given  from  the  first  grade  on  up  through  the 


6 


eighth  grade.  We  believe  that  these  occupations  should  be 
means  of  expression  as  well  as  means  of  impression ;  that 
the  child  should  acquire  certain  useful  information,  express 
his  thoughts  in  new  ways,  and  gain  control  of  his  physical 
self.  We  believe  furthermure  that  there  should  exist  a  close 
relationship  between  these  subjects  and  the  other  subjects 
of  the  curriculum,  such  as  history,  geography  and  elemen¬ 
tary  science. 

It  is  our  conviction  that  the  work  in  manual  training 
should  not  be  formal,  but  should  center  about  certain  prob¬ 
lems;  that  the  exercises  selected  should  be  chosen  because 
of  their  relation  to  these  problems.  Thus  we  are  taking  up 
problems  arising  in  connection  with  certain  of  the  indus¬ 
tries;  paper  making  in  the  fifth  grade,  with  tablet  making, 
etc. ;  house  construction  in  the  sixth  grade.  The  work  in 
arithmetic  is  based  upon  the  actual  measurements  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  study  of  these  and  other  industries  of  these 
classes.  In  this  manner  we  secure  an  insight  into  the  prob¬ 
lems  of  these  industries,  opportunities  for  construction 
work,  and  a  thoroly  concrete  basis  for  arithmetical  work; 
and  this  is  probably  the  most  that  can  be  gotten  from  manu¬ 
al  training  with  children  of  the  elementary  grades.  For  the 
higher  grades  the  courses  will  be  essentially  different  in 
content. 

Modern  life  demands  that  the  child  be  acquainted  with 
some  of  the  elementary  facts  of  science.  The  curriculum 
of  the  elementary  school  should  therefore  contain  certain 
facts  from  botany,  zoology,  meteorology,  physics,  chemistry, 
astronomy  and  agriculture.  The  course  here  offered  should 
not  be  a  dilution  of  the  work  given  in  similar  courses  in  the 
High  School  and  College.  The  elementary  school  is  not  the 
place  in  which  to  give  extensive  theories  and  laws,  but  rath¬ 
er  those  facts  touching  the  pupiTs  life  now  or  likely  to  do 
so  in  the  future.  The  facts,  it  seems  to  us,  should  be  rep¬ 
resentative  and  should  suggest  the  underlying  principle 
when  possible;  but  to  insist  upon  the  pupil's  making  the 
generalizations  of  the  adult  in  the  brief  time  at  the  disposal 
for  science  teaching  is  absurd.  As  far  as  possible,  it  is  felt, 
the  facts  should  be  related  to  some  of  the  children's  inter¬ 
ests,  whether  these  be  instinctive  or  acquired.  Thus  in  the 


7 


primary  grades  we  may  study  the  pets  of  the  children  teach¬ 
ing  them  their  characteristics,  and  how  to  care  for  them ; 
while  in  the  higher  grades  the  study  may  deal  with  the  facts 
and  problems  suggested  by  the  activities  of  the  home,  the 
farm,  the  community,  etc.,  in  which  the  child  now  has  ac¬ 
quired  an  interest. 

Music  and  art  will,  of  course,  be  given  a  place  in  the 
curriculum,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  work  in  these  branches 
will  be  made  more  effective  than  is  usually  done.  In  both 
branches  the  pupils  should  reach  the  point  where  they  will 
look  upon  and  use  them  as  a  means  of  expression.  Much  of 
the  work  in  drawing  has  been  a  mere  waste  of  time  because 
children  have  never  drawn  anything  outside  of  the  drawing 
period  altho  abundant  opportunities  have  arisen  in  their 
study  of  literature,  history,  geography,  science  and  other 
branches.  It  is  hoped  that  both  through  the  arrangement 
of  the  work  and  through  the  application  of  the  curriculum 
this  difficulty  will  be  overcome. 

We  believe  that  physical  training  ought  to  have  some 
place  in  schools  of  today,  but  hold  that  this  training  should 
not  be  the  formal  training  such  as  is  usually  given  in  a  more 
or  less  perfunctory  way  by  the  teacher  and  carried  out  in  a 
similar  manner  by  the  pupils.  Since  the  school  must  as¬ 
sume  responsibility  for  the  development  of  the  physical  na¬ 
ture  of  the  children  there  must  be  some  provision  for  peri¬ 
odic  physical  examinations.  The  information  obtained  in 
this  manner  should  then  be  used  as  a  basis  for  corrective 
physical  exercises.  It  is  here  that  formal  exercises  of  the 
right  kind  have  their  value;  but  for  the  best  all-around  de¬ 
velopment  of  normal  children  there  is  probably  nothing 
quite  so  good  as  the  spontaneous  play  of  the  children  in  the 
gymnasium  or  on  the  playground.  In  the  higher  grades 
may  be  added  field  and  track  events,  basket  ball  and  base 
ball.  This  work  wisely  directed,  when  direction  is  neces¬ 
sary,  together  with  the  physical  exercise  to  be  gotten  in  the 
manual  training  and  school  garden  work,  should  provide  for 
the  physical  development  of  the  children. 

Another  feature  of  the  course  of  study  to  which  we  shall 
give  attention  is  more  consistent  classification  of  subject 
matter,  such  as  history,  literature,  language,  etc.  We  be- 


8 


lieve  that  in  the  teaching  of  history,  for  example,  there  is 
required  of  the  teacher  a  certain  attitude  of  mind  which 
leads  her  to  emphasize  certain  features  of  the  work;  in 
teaching  literature  she  has  another  attitude,  or  aim,  which 
in  this  case  causes  her  to  stress  certain  other  features,  al¬ 
though  she  may  have  the  same  group  of  facts  to  deal  with  in 
the  two  cases.  This  fact  should  be  recognized  in  the  mak¬ 
ing  of  courses  of  study.  There  is  no  advantage  in  calling 
stories  of  mythical  characters  history;  they  are  not  history, 
and  the  teacher  should  not  be  compelled  to  call  them  history. 
If  we  do  not  wish  to  call  them  literature  let  us  call  them 
fiction.  The  course  in  history  has  suffered  from  this  sort  of 
thing  and  is  filled  with  materials  which  no  adult  mind  would 
accept  as  history.  The  same  is  true  in  geography  in  the 
primary  grades.  Here  we  find  an  aggregation  of  facts  se¬ 
lected  from  different  sciences,  and  for  the  want  of  another 
term,  apparently,  they  are  called  geography.  When  one  ex¬ 
amines  the  course,  however,  for  the  purpose  of  discovering 
the  viewpoint  of  geography  one  looks  in  vain ;  the  facts  are 
treated  exactly  as  if  they  were  taught  in  connection  with 
physics  or  astronomy.  Would  it  not  be  better  to  call  these 
facts  by  their  right  name  and  teach  them  as  such  rather 
than  to  confuse  the  teacher  and  in  the  end  the  children  as 
well?  Language  has  probably  been  sinned  against  more 
than  either  of  the  subjects  named.  After  teachers  began  to 
feel  that  formal  grammar  was  not  suited  to  children  of  the 
lower  grades  and  written  and  oral  composition  work  was  in¬ 
troduced  to  take  the  place  of  the  former,  many  of  them  felt 
that  an  interesting  content  was  needed  for  this  work.  Thus 
the  study  of  nature,  of  art,  of  literature  was  taken  up  in  the 
language  period.  The  result  was  that  language  as  such  re¬ 
ceived  only  incidental  attention  and  the  looked-for  improve¬ 
ment  was  not  realized.  We  have  now  come  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  language  has  a  content  of  its  own  which  must  be 
emphasized;  that  while  we  may  take  the  subject  matter  of 
other  branches  for  composition  work,  if  the  teacher  is  really 
to  secure  good  results  she  must  have  the  viewpoint  of  lan¬ 
guage,  must  attend  primarily  to  the  organization  of  thought, 
to  the  formal  elements  necessary  for  expressing  thought  in 
best  form.  She  must  further  see  to  it  that  the  children 


9 


have  this  viewpoint,  that  they  are  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
what  they  are  trying  to  do  during  the  language  period  is  to 
express  their  thoughts  in  the  most  effective  way  and  in  the 
best  possible  form.  The  subject  matter  of  history  and  liter¬ 
ature  and  of  science  may  be  used  in  the  language  period,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  these  subjects,  however,  but 
rather  to  show  the  children  that  the  principles  of  language 
apply  to  their  everyday  lessons.  We  believe  the  more  clear¬ 
ly  the  teacher  has  gotten  hold  of  this  principle  the  more 
effective  will  be  her  work. 

In  advocating  a  better  classification  of  subject  matter 
we  are  not  in  any  way  opposing  the  idea  that  subjects  do 
not  become  differentiated  as  such  in  the  experience  of  the 
children  as  early  as  is  sometimes  assumed  by  teachers,  and 
that  for  that  reason  the  child  should  not  be  made  conscious 
of  the  fact  that  he  is  being  taught  four  or  five  different  sub¬ 
jects  from  the  beginning.  The  fact  that  the  teacher  knows 
that  she  is  trying  to  teach  four  or  five  different  branches  does 
not  mean  that  the  child  must  know  this  also;  the  teacher 
may  take  up  fifty  different  subjects  without  announcing  the 
fact  to  the  children  whom  she  is  teaching.  What  is  impor¬ 
tant  is  that  the  children  shall  actually  get  hold  of  the  point 
which  the  teacher  is  trying  to  teach,  and  this  will  not  hap¬ 
pen  unless  the  teacher  is  perfectly  clear  as  to  her  aim. 

To  secure  the  greatest  economy  in  time  and  effort  we 
shall  attempt  in  so  far  as  possible  to  apply  the  principle  of 
correlation  both  in  the  arrangement  of  the  topics  and  in  the 
method  of  bringing  them  before  the  children.  No  attempt 
will  be  made,  however,  to  apply  this  principle  in  the  ex¬ 
treme  form  in  which  it  is  sometimes  applied;  we  do  not  look 
upon  it  as  an  end  but  merely  as  a  means  for  effective 
work.  The  order  of  topics  in  geography  will  be  determined 
as  far  as  possible  by  the  order  of  those  in  history.  Arith¬ 
metic  will  be  correlated  with  manual  training,  domestic 
science  and  agriculture.  Wherever  history  and  geography 
can  be  treated  in  a  quantitative  way  we  shall  do  so.  The 
facts  taught  in  science  will  be  based  upon  the  problems  of 
agriculture,  manual  training  and  the  home  experience  of  the 
children. 

The  course  is  planned  primarily  for  the  children  of  Ox- 


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ford.  An  attempt  has  therefore  been  made  to  utilize  the 
materials  at  hand  in  such  branches  as  history  and  geography. 
Also  since  the  interests  of  this  place  are  largely  those  of  a 
farming  community  some  emphasis  will  be  placed  upon  the 
study  of  agriculture. 

Since  the  courses  to  be  outlined  will  vary  very  material¬ 
ly  from  the  courses  given  in  the  textbooks  in  the  several 
branches  it  has  been  deemed  advisable  to  plan  the  topics  in 
considerable  detail,  thus  giving  the  teacher  that  guidance 
necessary  in  uncertain  places.  A  further  reason  for  this  de¬ 
tailed  statement  is  the  fact  that  the  course  will  be  used  by 
the  student  teachers  of  the  Normal  College.  A  fairly  com¬ 
plete  list  of  references  on  subject  matter  and  method  will  ac¬ 
company  the  topics. 

Whether  a  given  course  of  study  is  carried  out  success¬ 
fully  or  not  depends  to  a  very  great  extent  upon  the  view¬ 
point  and  skill  of  the  teachers  in  charge.  In  order  to  make 
the  course  as  helpful  as  possible  along  this  line  it  is  our  pur¬ 
pose  to  offer  enough  of  the  methodology  of  each  subject  to 
enable  the  teacher  to  get  the  viewpoint  of  the  framers  of  the 
course  and  so  to  have  a  standard  of  values  and  of  emphasis. 
Each  outline  will  be  preceded  by  a  statement  of  the  purpose 
of  the  course,  the  points  especially  to  be  emphasized,  the 
minimum  requirements  for  each  grade,  and  suggestions  re¬ 
garding  the  treatment  of  the  topics  taken  up. 

When  a  course  of  study  has  been  planned  to  meet  fully 
the  needs  of  a  certain  community  after  all  only  a  beginning 
has  been  made  to  give  that  community  a  good  school;  a  big¬ 
ger  element  or  factor  than  the  course  of  study  or  its  makers 
is  the  teacher  who  attempts  to  apply  it  from  day  to  day,  who 
gives  life  and  soul  to  the  dry  bones.  Unless  there  is  a 
teacher  who  has  the  ability  to  get  into  the  soul  life  of  the 
child,  to  get  his  sympathy,  and  to  take  hold  of  him  and  de¬ 
velop  in  him  right  ways  of  feeling,  correct  sympathies,  ap¬ 
preciation  of  the  good  and  useful,  and  who  can  then  form 
habits  of  action  to  reenforce  these  sympathies  in  critical 
moments;  unless  there  is  a  teacher  of  this  kind  to  apply  the 
course,  all  the  work  put  in  the  curriculum  will  be  in  vain. 
The  great  factor  in  the  schoolroom  is  the  teacher,  and  in 
planning  the  course  we  have  attempted  only  to  enable  the 


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good  teacher  to  do  her  work  better  than  ever  before ;  to  see 
more  fruit  from  her  labor  because  all  the  teachers  of  the 
corps  are  now  working  with  her  to  gain  the  same  goal. 

Whatever  shall  appear  in  the  several  outlines  to  be  pub¬ 
lished  later  is  material  that  has  been  tested  in  this  and  other 
schools,  and  is  therefore  workable.  No  attempt  has  been 
made  to  enter  into  the  speculative  fields  and  to  offer  fantas¬ 
tic  theories  which  are  beyond  the  teacher's  comprehension. 
There  is  a  place  for  experiments  in  connection  with  the  work 
of  an  institution  for  the  training  of  teachers,  but  these  ex¬ 
periments  should  not  constitute  a  recognized  element  of  the 
course  of  study  until  they  have  passed  the  experimental 
stage. 

In  the  framing  of  the  course  of  study  the  several  depart¬ 
ments  have  been  and  will  be  freely  consulted  for  suggestions 
and  criticisms.  With  the  publication  of  the  outlines  credit 
will  be  given  to  whom  credit  is  due. 


J.  W.  HECKERT. 


